Friday, February 28, 2014

Robots will be smarter than us all by 2029, warns Google futurologists Ray Kurzweil popularised the Teminator-like moment he called the 'singularity', when artificial intelligence overtakes human thinking. But now the man who hopes to be immortal is involved in the very same quest –

on behalf of the tech behemoth.Google.

By 2029, computers will be able to understand our language, learn from experience and outsmart even the most intelligent humans, according to Google's director of engineering

Ray Kurzweil.

One of the world's leading futurologists and artificial intelligence (AI) developers, 66-year-old Kurzweil has previous form in making accurate predictions about the way technology is heading.

In 1990 he said a computer would be capable of beating a chess champion by 1998 - a feat managed by IBM's Deep Blue, against Garry Kasparov, in 1997.

When Google announced earlier this month that a secret division of the company had been buying up robotics companies for the past six months the internet got excited.

When the news broke this week that they had bought Boston Dynamics, the internet got really excited.

This is because Boston Dynamics makes some of the most fascinating and technologically advanced robots the web has seen - and thankfully they don't stint in uploading footage of their creations to YouTube either.

Although the acquisition doesn't mean that Google Glass-wearing robots are going to start tramping through your living room in an effort to complete work on Street View Home, it's exciting to look at the varied creations that Boston Dynamics will be bringing to Google's robotic stables and imagine a future where the search giant's

Rounding off this introduction to Boston Dynamics' bots is perhaps the most endearingly determined of all the company's creations; RHex is a small six-legged bot that has a number of "specialised gaits that devour rough terrain

with minimal operator input".

Essentially this means that although RHex's walking style looks silly, it can happily

splash through shallow streams and stamp its way over rocky paths. A fully sealed

body keeps it working in any environment and it can also be remotely controlled by

an operator up to 700 metres away. Let's just hope that when Google doles out

delivery duties, RHex gets the job rather than the terrifying PetMan.

- UK Independent

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Wingman's Take on Robots in our Future

First off, I've Read Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity

and it IS Near..

I'm into my third reading because there's a whole

lot of stuff in there...

Wingman.

I've also Read the Even More Frightening Book by Daniel Suarez about self-aware killing drones called Kill Decision.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

One camera. Two separate lenses. That's the conundrum raised by leaked images of HTC's forthcoming M8 smartphone, which is rumored to bring some interesting new imaging features that go far beyond mere 3D. But what could those features be? For an answer, we turned to a startup called Corephotonics, which is currently pitching precisely such a dual-lens concept to smartphone makers. The company's representatives told us that they're not behind the specific module in the M8 -- that camera must be coming from some other rival or from within HTC itself --

Is that an iPhone in your pocket? Then you'd better pull it out, dive into the settings menu and check for updates: there may be an important patch waiting for you. Apple has quietly pushed out iOS 7.0.6 and 6.1.6 -- small updates that addresses a hitherto unknown security issue with its mobile OS. According to the company's security notes, the previous versions of iOS was missing key SSL validation steps that kept Secure Transport from validating authentic connections, making it possible for "attackers with a privileged network position" to "capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS."

Friday, February 21, 2014

Murdoch, 82, who is also chief executive officer of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., went into contract to purchase two units at One Madison, a triplex penthouse spanning the 58th through 60th stories and another full-floor apartment beneath it, his spokesman, Steven Rubenstein, said. The properties total about 10,160 square feet (944 square meters), according to a statement from Related Cos., one of the developers of the tower on East 22nd Street in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood.

Despite America’s love affair with Super Bowl commercials—many marketers believe their enormous cost is not worth the price. This year, a 30-second spot is an eye-popping $4 million while a 60-second spot goes for a jaw-dropping $8 million. And let’s not forget the cost of producing a Super Bowl commercial. The average Super Bowl spot has a production cost that’s north of $1 million and,

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Facebook just made two more Silicon Valley entrepreneurs into billionaires.

On Wednesday, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company announced a record $19 billion for messaging service WhatsApp, instantly taking its cofounders Jan Koum and Brian Acton into the realm of 10-figure fortunes. FORBES estimates that Koum held about a 45% stake in the company, while Acton’s stake was over 20%.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook said it would be paying for the deal with nearly 184 million shares, $4 billion in cash and nearly 46 million restricted stock units (RSUs), valuing the acquisition at over $19 billion. After disregarding the RSUs, which are not immediately exercisable, and assessing taxes, FORBES estimates that Koum is worth $6.8 billion while

Acton is worth at least $3 billion as of Facebook’s closing

share price on Wednesday.

Messages left with WhatsApp were not immediately returned on Wednesday.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Fired from 40-millimeter-capable firearm, these beasts are capable of being shot into the air where they deploy

a camera with a parachute. This camera then captures images

as it falls gracefully toward the ground.

The device is made by ST Kinetics and is called SPARCS, also known as Soldier Parachute Aerial Reconnaissance Camera System. The camera sends out video feeds as well, encoded (but not encrypted) using the phase alternating line scheme.

Pictured above is Jonas Pfeil, president and co-founder of Panono.
Panono is a ball that has 36 three-megapixel cameras built into it. The
one Pfeil is holding in the picture is a working prototype version, and
it’s about the size of a volleyball.

To operate Panono, you simply throw it in the air. The ball has a
sensor inside that recognizes when it has reached the apex of its
airborne journey. At this point, it automatically fires all the shutters
at once, capturing a 108-megapixel, 360-degree panoramic photograph.

After the ball takes its mega-photo, it sends the images to Panono’s
image-stitching cloud service wirelessly. From there, the shot is
converted into a navigable animated image. You can view it in a browser
or the Panono app.

About Me

I started in computing selling the TRS-80 many years ago in the early 80's and got hooked when I bought my own Coco (Color Computer). I've had a computer ever since.
I write short SF stories and Linux/OpenSource articles. I'm on Twitter as: http://twitter.com/ErnieMLopez/